5/19 Season Three, Episode 20: Dead Men Leave No Trails–Scarecrow and Mrs King

Amanda’s heading for the house with the big tree!
The shot cuts to Amanda walking along the sidewalk and up a driveway. whoo hooo! someone is rockin the violin in the house with the big tree!
Amanda walks to the door and rings the doorbell.Amanda: Hello.Millicent: Hello.Amanda: Hi. Mrs. McDonald?Millicent: Uh-huh.Amanda: My name is Amanda King. Uh, one of your neighbours told me you might be able to help me. I’m looking for a tall, dark-haired man with very blue eyes. Uh, I owe him some money but I don’t know his name, and your neighbour told me that you might have a boarder that fit that description.Millicent: I do have a boarder.Amanda: Oh!Millicent: Alan.Amanda: Uh-huh.Millicent: But, uh… I’m afraid he’s not home right now.Amanda: Oh.Millicent: Ah, but I have a picture inside, though.Amanda: W-Millicent: Would you like to come in?Amanda: Yes.Millicent: Ah, plea- Call me Millicent. Millicent motions for Amanda to head inside. Millicent. Quite an old fashioned name.. is smk going for the quiet, old fashioned romantic stereotype here?!Amanda: Millicent. Thank you very much.Millicent: Go right on in.Amanda: Thank you.Millicent: Uh-huh.Amanda: Oh.Millicent: Alan doesn’t know I have it. Millicent puts down her violin and picks up the photo. Um was it hidden in her violin case? um.. if so that’s a tad weird no?!Amanda: Oh.Millicent: He’s so shy about pictures.Millicent: It’s not very good, I’m afraid. I took it when he was asleep.[Suggests Millicent has romantic feelings for this border of hers yes? I’m guessing she’s a widow.. thoughts? ]Millicent hands Amanda the photo.Umm.. is it just me or is this super creepy?! Amanda: That’s him!Millicent: It is?Amanda: Mm-hmm.Millicent: Good! Well, I’ll call and see if he’s back yet, and you stay for tea.Amanda: Thank you. Millicent: Yeah.Millicent heads off to get organised. Oh my… she’s even wearing pearls! Okay, she’s a bit weird, but she seems like a nice lady. A nice weird lady maybe.. A nice weird old fashioned lady. lol! Amanda seems to like her, so I guess I should too!

The scene ends here… and we head back to IFF.Whoooo seems IFF now has some heavy dude with duffel bag patrolling the perimeter!

Inside we see a young lady entering the bullpen in a rush.. Such a rush, it’s hard for me to get a clear image. For whatever reason this ep is giving me troubles. Oh well.. so long as the swoony moments (which surely must be coming -don’t tell me! ) are clear – we’ll manage! Youngwoman: Excuse me, sir?She rushes over to Sir Lee!Lee: Yes?Youngwoman: Is this where they’re having the orientation lecture?Lee: Yes. Yes, it is.Youngwoman: If you have a minute, could you look over my initial registration sequence cards?She hands them over to Lee.
I am loving this young lady not falling over herself at the sight of Lee.. and how does Lee respond to her?
Lee: Sure. LOL Lee seems a bit confused by all this orientation stuff.. and not remotely interested in this young lady! (hooray at complete lack of flirty vibes!)Youngwoman: This is all pretty new to me. [Aaand yet, you’re not wearing a guess pass. Grrr]Lee: Hah…… You have to fill out all these?.. [Rofl seems Lee knows even less than this young agent does! He gathers himself.. and puts on a front so he can have some kind of authority. or.. is that dignity?! ]…I mean… you have to fill out all these cards, which you have, and, uh… they look fine to me. Heh. Lee goes to hand them back to her, she looks down.. I guess at the cards.. But then, she looks further down…At what?! Huh? Lee reacts.. lol.Lee: Uh, is there something wrong? What are you staring at? Youngwoman: Uh, your shoes. Lee: Huh? She looks up.. amazed! Young woman: My dad has some just like them![lol she sounds sooooo! excited!! to find someone wearing her dad’s shoes!!! Wow!!!! – huh?!
Random! and.. slightly deranged in my book! ]
She smiles at confused Lee and wanders into the training room.
[Reminds me of that weird moment where Amanda looks down at Lee’s feet in Over the limit.. but the script told us she had noticed his socks don’t match. Remember that?! ]What the heck? Umm… Lee looks down at his shoes wondering the same thing as me, I’m guessing… what the heck?! The shoe lady holds the door open for him and he heads inside.. rather gingerly.. it’s like Lee is a bit scared of what he’s going to be faced with in this room! These new agents are weird! and.. she thinks I wear her dad’s shoes?! As Lee heads inside shoe lady gives him a little grin.. Umm is she messing with him? is that what this is? because (thank goodness) there is zero flirty vibe going on here.. but .. what the heck is she doing?
As if you’d say that if you are new and this is an experienced agent? I give her the benefit of the doubt that she doesn’t know yet that this is the great scarecrow ha!
If she isn’t messing with Lee’s head on purpose? Well, then I worry about the calibre of people they are letting become agents these days. No filter between her head and her mouth.

At the same time, I figure SMK is throwing in a little gag at Lee’s getting ‘mature’ and it highlights that he is no longer a man about town- who isn’t loving that?! tee hee.. 🙂

But.. still… I find it a bit strange rather fan funny- what do you all think?

Ahhhh!! I saw on IMDB that Nancy Boxleitner is an actress in this episode. Maybe this is Nancy Boxleitner (a relation of BB?) and it’s an inside gag of some kind?
Okay I got curious!
I can’t find a picture of Nancy, but this Article mentions that Bruce has a sister called Nancy! [LOL at BB’s complaints in the article about fans (female) ‘roughing’ him up and ‘grabbing’ him! one reason why I have no desire to meet BB in person whahahaa.. kidding!! Maybe we can talk about this at Nedlindger’s if others are interested..)

How about this article.. which among many other interesting things (we can maybe talk about at Nedlindger’s?! ) It says “He (BB) has won over his youngest sister, Nancy, who migrated to Los Angeles last year and is now an aspiring actress. Big brother even helped arrange her TV debut with a small role on his series last season.”

But drat.. it doesn’t say what role she did.. Call me crazy but I’m thinking the vibe here fits a sibling gag! I’m going to guess this girl here is his sister Nancy., a newbie actress.. which explains the weird vibe and the smile at the end of the scene.. Anyone able to shed anymore light on this? What do you think?

Anyway.. I’ll need to finish up here. bye for now! Can’t wait to hear from ya!

42 responses to “5/19 Season Three, Episode 20: Dead Men Leave No Trails–Scarecrow and Mrs King”

Bruce and Nancy have so many features in common though I noticed she’s not a southpaw like her brother. His undercurrent of delight in acting with his baby sister came through on screen. He was the only boy growing up with 3 sisters (Terri, Sandy & Nancy), which did a fine job of preparing him for such great facial expressions as the loner Scarecrow gets paired with exasperating and mystifying Amanda. We had a similar dynamic in my family (3 sisters, 1 brother) and he at times felt isolated and clueless. But the tables turned in real life because Bruce Boxleitner is Dad to 3 sons.

In response to her, “My Dad has some (shoes) just like them,” I would have loved to hear him mutter, “So does mine!”

Lol – someone pointed out Mr. Jones wore beige in the last post…and now we have Millicent in all beige in this post! What is up with all the beige??? I think Millicent has never been married. She’s still waiting for the right one to come along. I think she is wearing her pearls for when Alan comes home. I bet she’d have a hot meal on the table for him if she knew he’d be hungry when he walked in the door.

I do love the bit about Lee wearing shoes like that “girl’s” dad’s. Although he went from Super hot spy stud to neighborhood beige grandpa in less than 3 years. Amanda is REALLY rubbing off on him!

Although he went from Super hot spy stud to neighborhood beige grandpa in less than 3 years.

rofl! I don’t know what it is.. right when we are getting to the good stuff.. he’s gone all beige. Maybe they knew that Lee in full European studliness starting to show his mature, true love for Amanda would be just too much goodness all at once? 😉

My mind is so frazzled right about now so I hope this comes out okay. There’s been a lot of discussion about the blandness of the beige in Lee’s attire and there was some beige discussions about last episode’s baddie. I began to wonder if there might be a reason for all the appearances of beige. We are nearing the end of this season (episode order, notwithstanding) and we’ve seen so much change between Lee and Amanda on so many fronts. I’m wondering if his attire is a reflection of that and a reflection of how Lee views himself, his life, and his relationship to and with Amanda.

I actually did a little research on the color beige and there are positive and negative aspects regarding the color. Some typically see beige as being bland and so forth. Here are some words that are supposedly associated with the color: dependable, calm, relaxing, pleasantness, understated elegance, constant, unchanging, and loyal. It signifies stability, structure, and support. It encourages a strong need for security and a sense of belonging. And it relates to the protection and support of the family unit and a keen sense of duty and responsibility.

To me, this sounds a lot like the transitions Lee has been going through. Sadly we’ve moved from the swoony-ness of the wonderful suits and tuxedos, but the reasons why may be even more swoon worthy. Just some food for thought.

Great to hear from you both!
FYI I’m very light on smk time right now in RL.. and any smk time I get, I’m writing blog posts to keep the show on the road.. so I’ve actually responded to this idea in post 10.. coming up in a week or two! lol!
byeeeeee!

Heck even I love her comment, and I’m not very fluent in that language! 😀 Hey, so is that a good thing that all the walls of the non bedrooms in my house are painted in a shade of beige? I like those adjectives in valeriejw’s comment.

I just looked at the script and it has the the accident scene right after the King’s house scene and then they go to the conference room which has Francine there, Billy tries to get her to do the orientation but she has too much work, so Lee gets the assignment. Then comes the Q-bureau scene which no where near as flirty. This order would make more sense that Amanda’s normal life things happened on Sun., and she did all the car quotes Mon. morning before heading to the Agency.

How beige can this episode become, anyway? No, I don’t refer to the plot but to the clothing. Millicent wears even more beige than Lee does. At least his shirt shows some other colours as grey and pink.

We use to have a song here in Germany, sung by a white guy with the colourful name Roy Black. The title of this song is ‘All in White’.
Seems Millicent adapted that title into ‘All in Beige’ and was gonna sing a duet with Lee…. uhhhh….

And Millicent’s dress looks like some throw back to the 1950’s. Something the mother in Happy Days would have worn. Between that and the shoe comment it makes me think tptb are trying to communicate something… just not sure what?

I love this DMLNT, it is one of my favourite episodes of season three.
I like the open nod (or as Kiwismh calls it ‘ramming the point home) to Lee’s growing maturity and respectability. I think he looks cute with his books and brave determination to deal with the ‘youth’. It is also cute that BB gets a speaking part for his little sister.
Having said that, I do think it is mean for Amanda to welch on her deal to help Lee with his speech. I get it that she is ‘enthused’ (as Billy would say) to give back the money and also by a nosiness to see what is going on. But, at this stage, there is nothing to suggest a crime so I think she should have kept her promise before continuing her investigation. I appreciate that they are ‘ramming home the point’ about Amanda’s self confidence and investigative skills to parallel Lee’s growth but breaking a promise to satisfy curiousity is not very attractive (imo).
I watched this episode once with my sister, I should add here that she is a fan of horror films. She immediately thought that Millicent was a creepy serial killer with bodies of borders rotting in her cellar. Up to then I had thought that Millicent was a lonely spinster (I hadn’t noticed the wedding ring). I suppose that she is a little creepy with her violin and snatched photo but I had seen her as pathetic rather that sinister.

Michele — Your sister was spot on about serial killer Millicent … she lives alone yet takes in only men. Makes me wonder whatever became of her husband and her previous boarder (the blonde guy)? Were it not for Amanda disturbing the creepy dynamics between them, I’m torn between thinking sinister Millicent had finally met her match in Sallee OR would she eventually take the notorious killer by surprise and kill him?

Serial killer Millicent? did I read that when we first walked through that ep? I can’t remember. lol. Nancy and Michele you guys got me thinking..

I can’t remember feeling this at the time, but looking back on Millicent’s character and her sad, tragic demise – I feel an urge to protect her character. Interesting… not sure why.. Hmmm
Maybe it’s because she really was just a nice lady (though with our modern eyes she was a little strange) – she didn’t deserve the brutal death her character experienced. Maybe before walking through the ep I would have been more detached from her character’s story and able to play with serial killer gag 🙂 … Maybe give it another month or two and I will again. LOL! Maybe it’s just me.

At least sad Agnes got to live another day. Millicent didn’t. It was up to Lee and Amanda to get justice for Millicent.
I think Amanda was quite touched by her story- and thus why she wanted to give Millicent the credit for being so observant and writing down the information they needed to catch Sallee.. I guess in a sense, Millicent took him down from the grave. but.. because she lost her life, there is a sad tinge to the justice. It’s great justice was served, but the death was still a tragedy that can’t be undone.
Death seems to be becoming more grounded in reality as we progress through smk no?
Early season 1 I don’t think I would have been pondering the finality of death, nor the inadequacy of justice in this life..
In season 1 – Death was indirectly dealt with and bendy knives were used! 🙂

to finish up, just so I’m clear:
I share my current thoughts on Millicent’s character, because I find it interesting that we can experience the characters differently – and I don’t need nor expect others to agree with me.. [though lol feel free to 🙂 ]
I understand the characters are not real! and.. no character is above a little teasing. Feel free to play with the ‘Millicent the serial killer concept’ 🙂

Is that wedding ring on Millicent’s left hand? Maybe she’s a lonely widow.
Sallee looks like a corpse on that photo, rather than someone who is just sleeping. 😯 He must be a reasonably heavy sleeper if Millicent can sneak on up and snap a photo without him even stirring.

Agree, back in the 80’s we would have had to use the flash to get a clear photo, wouldn’t that wake him up??? I think the idea of snapping a photo of your boarder while he slept was beyond creepy…twilight zone creepy.

I’m getting an Agnes Snow kind of vibe from Millicent here. Also, her last name, McDonald, is the same as the lady who ran the house that Joe King stayed in during Wrong Way Home, except Amanda called her Mrs. McDragon.

It’s interesting to look back and see just how friendly and accommodating people used to be in this time period. I couldn’t see anyone these days just welcoming a stranger into their home and then offering them tea. Most likely they wouldn’t even let them in the door and then tell them the party they were looking for isn’t here, but to come back later. Maybe I’m just a cynical city dweller. But then, of course, this is SMK land.

I noticed a couple of interesting things on IMDB about this episode, but will wait till we get to the end to bring it up. I think it would lend itself well to an episode order discussion down the road.

Been missing you guys. RL, packing, gutting a classroom, emotional good-byes and so forth have been keeping me extremely busy and crazed.

I remember the first time someone called me “mam” instead of “miss”. All of a sudden I was aware of how mature and “older” I was. It sneaks up on you. I think it some what snuck up on Lee here too. But at the same time I don’t think he had a sinking feeling about this happening, I think it is a confirmation to him that he may be on the right track. I love it that there is no flirty vibe – at all. I am thinking that Lee may be more attuned to Zowalski having a baby boy than checking out the cute new Agency recruits.

And, yes, having a clandestine picture of a sleeping border is a bit weird, but important, after all this is SMK.

I keep thinking that this episode is somehow related to , or at least to be compared to ROTP, something about dead men and normal people. What happens when presumably dead people hang out with “normal” people, especially women that might come to care about them. I will keep it in mind as we continue this walk through.

And. lastly, I have heard that this is BB’s sister. I think that is kind of fun. I like to think BB had a hand in that and reveals something about his character, but also where he thinks Lee is at this moment.

I was thinking that the show comment might have thrown Lee in the sense that it implies that he’s getting older, but by no means is he old enough to be this woman’s father! It reminds me of when I was working in a college bookstore at 30 years old, and when I told one of the students that it was okay to write in a rental book because that was considered normal student behavior, and he haughtily told me that his generation didn’t write in books. I was not nearly old enough to be the mother of a college student! 😛

Although, I did say that those shoes of Lee’s looked kind of like grandpa shoes. It was kind of rude for her to point it out like that (and probably not something you say to get an instructor on your good side), but Lee might want to reconsider that look. They probably picked those shoes on purpose for this joke.

“and probably not something you say to get an instructor on your good side”

Here is another change for Lee. He didn’t really like having Amanda as a responsibility to train. He liked not having anyone dependent on him He was a lone wolf, out in the field, doing his dangerous thing. But here he is stepping into the roll of an instructor, responsible for teaching many newbies… That is a switch. Not all can teach, not all should teach – should Lee? Can Lee? I wonder what he is thinking about that roll?

I do not see Lee as the instructor type. At all. Having said that, he really doesn’t need Amanda’s help with his speech. I think he’s partly being lazy and partly wanting to work with her/spend time with her on it. I think Amanda also knows that Lee doesn’t really need her help, and so she isn’t too concerned about not helping him. And since she’s just got a Guest pass and hasn’t been through orientation herself, how is she supposed to help him write it anyway? Other than checking his grammar.

Haha, I remember the first time I got called “ma’am” … it was by the young cashier at the grocery store when we were checking out, so .. yeah LOL. That and one day I looked around and was like “everyone looks so young!” no, no, I am just getting older Awah … LOL.

Just to confirm, Iwsod, one of the regulars in the fanfic group and has helped organize comic con panels with BB mentioned recently that he confirmed that agent is his sister Nancy, so we’re not just guessing 🙂

Poor Millicent. I sense another S3 SMK woman-of-a-certain age with a passion for a mysterious man. I’m assuming her violin is very precious to her, so if she has his photo in her violin case, he is very precious to her. Plus he won’t look in the case and find it (now that would be embarrassing – taking a secret photo and it gets found by the object of your affection 😦 )

Yep, I heard that this was Nancy, his sister. Poor Lee, now he is being accused of having ‘dad’ clothes (or at least shoes) by someone who he could have dated (ignore the sister-in-real-life bit) Oh how the mighty -have fallen. Maybe it’s time to settle down, with that special lady……..

Yes, the big people in charge at SMK are giving us a (less than subtle) hint that Lee has moved on. He is no longer “out there”. He has joined the generation that is settling down and having a family. He is even wearing the uniform.

Yes, agree, “less than subtle” but SMK always goes OTT on the “are you getting the significance of this, audience?”
Maybe Lee’s total beige look was meant to signify this from the beginning of this episode, and now they are just ramming the point home.
Come to think of it, his S3 jeans have been more akin to Dad pants than the closer fitting jeans of S1 and 2.

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